In light of Robbie Robertson’s recent passing, it seems fitting to focus today on one of the most overlooked, yet best, musical outfits of the rock era, The Band. Originally a journeymen backing outfit in the late ’50s and early ’60s for rockabilly vocalist Ronnie Hawkins, they first made a name for themselves in the baptism by fire 1965- ’66 tours as Bob Dylan’s backing band. They were booed mercilessly everywhere they went as Dylan was deemed a sell-out for “going electric”. Ironically, less than eight years later, Dylan and the same Band were hailed as conquering heroes as they toured North America in what was up to that time the most in-demand concert ticket in history.

            The Band were five extraordinary musicians- Arkansas drummer Levon Helm, pianist Richard Manuel, bass player Rick Danko, lead guitarist and chief songwriter Robertson, and Garth Hudson, organist and multi-instrumentalist. In late 1966, early ’67 as Dylan, following a motorcycle accident, took a hiatus from the public eye, the group gathered with Bob near Woodstock, in upper New York state, at a large, rented pink house and began to sing, jam, and record a collection of traditional and original material that would eventually be known as “The Basement Tapes”. Now calling themselves The Band, as everyone else referred to them, out of these sessions also emerged the music for their first release, Music from Big Pink. Released in 1968 and featuring such classic tracks as  “Tears of Rage” (Dylan/ Manuel composition), “This Wheel’s on Fire” (Dylan/Danko composition), “I Shall Be Released”, Manuel’s stunning falsetto on a Dylan song, and the Robbie Robertson composed “The Weight”, unquestionably their most iconic song with its cryptic allusions, both spiritual and challenging.

            The brown follow-up LP, the eponymous The Band, was, if anything, even more celebrated, especially for the sound and texture of the music, which, building on the first release, hearkens back to some mythic era, perhaps 19th century America, unusual considering that Robertson, Manuel, Danko, and Helms hailed from Canada, and when most of the other music of the day was veering into heavy, dark, or psychedelic directions- here was The Band, sounding like some backwoods, mountain clan, with their aching, ragged vocal leads and harmonies (Helms, Manuel, Danko) and their adept country/rock/ r&b/Dixieland mash-up, a sound like no other, with old-timey songs such as “Rag Mama Rag”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, “King Harvest”, and the southern Civil War lament, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.

            More great music would follow- especially, “Stage Fright” and “The Shape I’m In” from Stage Fright; and “Ophelia” and “It Makes No Difference” (brilliant Danko vocal) from Northern Lights-Southern Cross. And then Robertson had had enough, coaxing The Band into retirement. Their farewell 1976 Thanksgiving Day concert, filmed by Martin Scorsese, became The Last Waltz, arguably the greatest concert film of them all, featuring such guests as Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, and Muddy Waters. Robertson went on to a celebrated career writing film scores for Scorsese while the four remaining members of The Band reconstituted in the 1980s to much less acclaim. The rest is sadness and bitterness- Manuel died in ’86, a suicide; Danko died at age 55, after years of struggling with drugs and drink; best friends Helm and Robertson had a bitter falling out over songwriting credits and royalties; Hudson is the lone surviving member and still, occasionally, plays publicly. But, for a time, The Band made mythic, timeless music.

         -Steve Williams (8/14/23) Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #36